Community Event: Tony Koji Wallin-Sato Reading at Northtown Books

Friday January 24, 6-7:30pm

Tony Koji Wallin-Sato will be reading from his new book of poems, Okaerinasai, at Northtown Books in Arcata on Friday January 24 from 6pm to 7:30pm. Tony will be joined by Sam Wilson and Sista Soul.

from the event listing on Northtown’s website:
What imprisons us, and what makes us free is a theme that runs like a wild river through the poems and prose of this collection. “Okaerinasai,” which roughly translates as “welcome back home,” weaves together Wallin-Sato’s adventures as a young Japanese-American in California struggling with addiction, to his redemptive adult work as a “re-entry” advocate for the formerly incarcerated. A series of riveting accounts of “gate pickups” when the author and his network greet former prisoners in their first hours of freedom, form a cinematic backdrop to meditations on Dogen’s Zen teachings and lyric reflections on the wilderness of California’s North Coast. Echos of Basho, and Bukowski sound through the work, with a powerful breadth of language that remains at its heart a fierce reparation for all that is false and broken.

Tony Wallin-Sato works with formerly and currently incarcerated students at Cal State Long Beach Project Rebound. He is also a lecturer in the Critical Race Gender and Sexuality Studies department at Cal Poly Humboldt and facilitates programming for youth and adult facilities. His chapbook of poems, Hyouhakusha: Desolate Travels of a Junkie on the Road, was published in 2021 through Cold River Press. Bamboo on the Tracks: Sakura Snow and Colt Peacemaker (Finishing Line Press) was selected by John Yau for the 2022 Robert Creeley Memorial Award.